One-glance verdict
Undervalued
$38.88 our estimate vs market $35.08
Wall Street consensus: $39.67 (2.0% higher than our fair-value estimate)
10% below our estimate, below the bear case
Fundamentals snapshot
Genesco Inc.
GCO · NYQ · Consumer Cyclical · Apparel Retail
Current price
$35.08
52-week range
$21.93 - $43.60
Market cap
$379.57M
Balance sheet
Watch
5.29x Adequate
Net debt $526.78M. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
3 Risks
3 rewards · 3 risks
- Reward Returns 7.8% on equity, ahead of 66% of its peers.
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 9/10 years.
- Risk Forward P/E (11.9x) is higher than trailing (8.8x) - earnings are expected to drop.
- Risk Operating margin compressed from 3.9% to -3.1% over 3 years.
What this company does
Genesco Inc.
Genesco is a company that sells shoes, clothing, and accessories through its own collection of retail store brands. Most of its revenue (the total money brought in from sales) comes from its Journeys stores, which target younger shoppers, and its Johnston & Murphy brand, which focuses on men's professional footwear. The company's overall health depends on how well these different store chains perform and attract their specific customers in the competitive fashion market.
How the company got here
Genesco began in 1924 as a shoe manufacturer in Tennessee called the Jarman Shoe Company. It grew quickly, went public in 1939, and changed its name to Genesco in 1959. For a time, the company expanded into many different areas of apparel and retail, but later returned to its roots, focusing primarily on footwear. Over the years, it shifted from manufacturing to owning a portfolio of retail store brands and licensed footwear brands. Key acquisitions, like the UK-based Schuh in 2011 and Canadian retailer Little Burgundy in 2015, helped shape the company into the international footwear seller it is today.
What it actually does
Genesco is a company that sells shoes, clothing, and accessories. You've likely seen their stores in shopping malls or online. They operate a collection of different retail brands, each with its own style and target customer, like Journeys for teens or Johnston & Murphy for professional adults. In addition to running its own stores, the company also has a wholesale business (selling products in bulk to other retailers) and licenses (lends its brand name for a fee) well-known brand names like Dockers for other companies to use on footwear.
Journeys Group
This is Genesco's largest business segment, making up about 60% of the company's sales. It includes the stores Journeys, Journeys Kidz, and Little Burgundy, which you often find in shopping malls. These stores focus on trendy, branded footwear and accessories for teenagers and young adults from popular brands like Vans, Converse, and UGG. The customers are typically young people looking for the latest styles in shoes.
Schuh Group
This part of the company operates primarily in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Schuh stores sell a wide variety of casual and athletic footwear from over 100 different brands, targeting a similar young, fashion-conscious customer as the Journeys Group. Acquired by Genesco in 2011, this segment gives the company a strong retail presence outside of North America. It represents a significant piece of the company's international business.
Johnston & Murphy Group
This segment focuses on premium, higher-end footwear, apparel, and accessories, mainly for men. Johnston & Murphy has its own retail stores and also sells its products through other department stores in a wholesale (selling goods in bulk to other retailers) arrangement. This brand targets a more affluent and professional customer than Journeys or Schuh. It accounts for a smaller portion of Genesco's total sales, around 14%.
Genesco Brands Group
This is the company's wholesale-focused division. Instead of operating its own stores, this group designs and sells footwear under licensed brand names like Levi's and Dockers to other retailers, such as department stores and online sellers. This segment allows Genesco to make money from well-known brands without the cost of running physical stores for them.
What management is betting on now
The company is focused on a "Footwear First Strategy," aiming to improve the performance of its core shoe businesses. A major priority is growing the Journeys brand, especially by appealing to more teen female shoppers. Management is also working to blend its physical stores and online shopping experiences, what's known as an omnichannel strategy (allowing customers to shop and return items seamlessly online or in-store). They are also investing in technology and artificial intelligence to improve efficiency and better understand customer trends.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Loading price history…
Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2025 Q4
$-36.20M
FY2026 Q1
$103.26M
FY2026 Q2
$-119.93M
FY2026 Q3
$71.66M
FY2026 Q4
$-31.51M
FY2027 Q2
$-118.19M
FY2027 Q3
$60.05M
Revenue
$529.86M
Net income
$3.48M
Diluted EPS
0.32
Operating cash flow
$76.38M
Free cash flow
$60.05M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$487.02M
Net income
$-14.81M
Diluted EPS
-1.42
Operating cash flow
$-102.77M
Free cash flow
$-118.19M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$616.22M
Net income
$5.36M
Diluted EPS
0.50
Operating cash flow
$-12.90M
Free cash flow
$-31.51M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$545.97M
Net income
$-18.47M
Diluted EPS
-1.79
Operating cash flow
$86.34M
Free cash flow
$71.66M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$473.97M
Net income
$-21.23M
Diluted EPS
-2.02
Operating cash flow
$-101.04M
Free cash flow
$-119.93M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$745.95M
Net income
$34.38M
Diluted EPS
3.16
Operating cash flow
$116.99M
Free cash flow
$103.26M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$596.33M
Net income
$-18.93M
Diluted EPS
-1.76
Operating cash flow
$-23.08M
Free cash flow
$-36.20M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $38.88 vs current price $35.08
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $39.67 (2.0% higher than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $38.88 a share — about 10.8% above today's price of $35.08, so the stock currently looks cheap (undervalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Watch
Net debt $526.8M. Interest coverage 5.3x.
Net debt
$526.78M
Interest coverage
5.29x
Genesco Inc.'s profit covers its interest bill about 5.3 times over. which is stronger than most peers shown here and 1 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Watch
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
GCO
BASELINE
Genesco Inc.
Total debt $583.91M Interest coverage 5.29x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $877.31M Interest coverage 1.48x -72% vs GCO Carries about 3.6x less debt cushion than GCO.
Total debt $354.60M Interest coverage 178.98x +3,283% vs GCO Carries about 33.8x more debt cushion than GCO.
Total debt $1.21B Interest coverage 0.91x -83% vs GCO Carries about 5.8x less debt cushion than GCO.
Total debt $227.20M Interest coverage 3.65x -31% vs GCO Carries about 1.5x less debt cushion than GCO.
What you should know
The case for and against GCO
3 Rewards
3 Risks
Rewards
-
Returns 7.8% on equity, ahead of 66% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 9/10 years.
-
Trades at 8.8x P/E vs peer median 20.0x (56.0% cheaper).
Risks
-
Forward P/E (11.9x) is higher than trailing (8.8x) - earnings are expected to drop.
-
Operating margin compressed from 3.9% to -3.1% over 3 years.
-
Insider ownership is only 14.1% (peer median: 17.4%).
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
8.79x
Forward P/E
11.89x
P/B
0.70x
P/S
0.16x
EV/EBITDA
11.62x
PEG ratio
0.68x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
46.6%
Operating margin
-3.1%
Net margin
1.7%
ROE
7.8%
ROA
1.1%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
1.05x
Current ratio
1.58x
Quick ratio
0.23x
Total debt
$583.91M
Total cash
$57.13M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$2.43B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
0.1%
EPS TTM
3.99
EPS 5Y CAGR
-39.6%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$134.06M
Free CF TTM
$83.71M
FCF margin
3.4%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
—
Payout ratio
0.0%
Last ex-div date
1973-04-09